Two new studies from Europe have found that the number of farm birds in France has crashed by a third in just 15 years, with some species being almost eradicated. The collapse in the bird population mirrors the discovery last October that over three quarters of all flying insects in Germany have vanished in just three decades. Insects are the staple food source of birds, the pollinators of fruits, and the aerators of the soil.
The chief suspect in this mass extinction is the aggressive use of neonicotinoid pesticides, particularly imidacloprid and clothianidin, both made by German-based chemical giant Bayer . These pesticides, along with toxic glyphosate herbicides (Roundup) , have delivered a one-two punch against Monarch butterflies, honeybees and birds. But rather than banning these toxic chemicals, on March 21st the EU approved the $66 billion merger of Bayer and Monsanto, the US agribusiness giant producing Roundup and the genetically modified (GMO) seeds that have reduced seed diversity ...

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"Many people are angered by the cruelties of the twenty-first-century economy. And their fury has fueled worldwide protest. Simultaneously, and almost everywhere, low-wage workers and small farmers began to revolt: in New York City restaurants, laundries, and warehouses, in Western Cape wineries and the garment shops of Phnom Penh, in Southern California Walmarts, and the big hotels of Providence, Oslo, Karachi, and Abuja. As capital has globalized, so has the labor movement. Marches, strikes, protests, and sit-ins from Tampa to Mali have changed the global conversation about workers' rights." So writes Annelise Orleck in her new book We Are All Fast Food Workers Now: The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages -- which, as she explains on this week's episode of Off-Kilter, tells the story behind the growing global labor movement ...

In a win for environmental and public health advocates, a California court has halted a program that allows the state agriculture department to spray pesticides on public and private property without proper notice to the public about its intention to spray or adequate study of the possible adverse impacts of the chemicals used.
The court order, which came late last week, was in response to a lawsuit brought by 11 environmental and public health groups -- including the Environmental Working Group, Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network North America, Center for Biological Diversity, and Moms Advocating Sustainability -- and the city of Berkeley.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture's (CDFA) Plant Pest Prevention and Management Program , which is supposed to control outbreaks of invasive plant pests, gave the agency the license to use 79 pesticides -- including some known to cause cancer and birth defects and to be highly toxic to bees, butterflies, and other wildlife -- ...

Food & Health
At a giant pet store in west-end Toronto last week, people loaded up on gifts and stocking stuffers for their pets, and posed with them for a "family Christmas photo."
This cheerful scene only highlighted the odd disconnect between the way we embrace our pets as family while allowing animals that are similarly sweet and endearing to live miserable lives on factory farms -- and to endure horrific deaths (more on that in a minute).
Indeed, only a stone's throw from that west-end Petsmart -- where you can buy a cute pair of fuzzy antlers for your dog -- are two slaughterhouses where a daily stream of trucks arrive carrying cows, calves and sheep.
We've all seen such trucks on the highway, probably caught a glimpse of animal snouts and eyes through the narrow slats. But no one driving on the highway seems alarmed, making it easy to conclude everything is fine, that the animals aren't suffering and that their deaths will be swift and painless.
I've recently come to believe that none of these ...

The Environmental Protection Agency's latest assessment of four neonicotinoid pesticides linked to declining populations of pollinators show that they could also harm birds and small mammals, but the agency is reluctant to ban their use until it completes its review. Environmentalists, concerned that it may prove too late for some species, want restrictions placed on the chemicals.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that popular pesticides linked to declining bee populations also pose a threat to birds and, in some cases, small mammals and insects.
The EPA released preliminary scientific assessments of four chemicals from the neonicotinoid or "neonic" class of insecticides on Friday as part of an ongoing review that environmentalists and farmers are watching closely. Previous EPA assessments echoed research showing that neonics can ...

While Congress hasn't accomplished much in 2017, it did manage to pass a budget resolution -- and within that budget, a sum of $3 million stands out.
Congress appropriated that $3 million to fund the Agricultural Biotechnology Education and Outreach Initiative . That's a partnership between the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) "to provide consumer education on agricultural biotechnology and food and animal feed ingredients derived from biotechnology."
What they're really talking about is a promotional campaign for genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
There are two major flaws with this plan.
First, the FDA is tasked with building a campaign around the "safety and benefits of crop biotechnology." But what about the risks, concerns, and unknowns?
Leaving those out means using government agencies and taxpayer funds for corporate propaganda. It benefits companies like Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Syngenta, and Bayer, which collectively earn billions of dollars from ...

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Whether food production entails acres of mono-crops, livestock shuttled through assembly lines or orderly tracks of plastic pipelines in factory-scale hydroponics spaces, streamlined production techniques tempt food producers to improve on nature, without necessarily assessing the long-term health or environmental costs. Even an apparently benign innovation, like hydroponics, may convey unexpected downsides.
Despite each new agricultural novelty, 17 years after the US Department of Agriculture established the Organic Standards, earth-based farming remains the oldest and most proven method for cultivating organic food. A coalition of farmers, sustainability advocates and foodies wants to keep it that way.
"If we want to protect the integrity of the organic seal, we will have to fight for it," says Lisa Stokke, founder of Next7 , which has launched a campaign to raise ...

Agricultural pollution is contaminating drinking water supplies for millions of Americans with potentially dangerous chemicals, says a new report. Environmental groups blame the meat industry, which requires massive supplies of industrially grown corn and soy to raise cattle, and are putting pressure on large-scale meat producers to get their supply chains to clean up their acts.
Scientists recently announced that the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, an area the size of New Jersey where oxygen levels are too low to sustain most forms of life, is larger than ever. For years, environmentalists have used annual surveys of the dead zone to bring attention to large amounts of agricultural pollution from the nation's breadbasket that flows down the Mississippi River and fuels oxygen-depleting algae blooms in the Gulf.
This year, the message is hitting much closer to home, especially for those living near farmlands.
A new report from the Environmental Working Group shows that the agricultural pollution ...